my poor clown..

[tjara03]

about a week ago i added two black perculas to my tank. one of them is acting weird.. it seems to hover over certain spots for long preiods of time and has not eatin since i got him. he is starting to look a little skinny and that is worrying me. he also looks as if he is breathing hard all the time. when i feed he seems to get excited and goes to the food but does not bits at any... i have tried formula one, freeze dried krill, and frozen and nothing.
i had my water tested this weekend at the LFS and everything was in tip top shape. the tank is a 75 gal with a coral beauty, scopas tang, bullet goby, and 1 chromis. please help i wanna save my little friend...
TIA

Troy

 

[Fluff]

Have you tried soaking the food in a garlic supplement like Garlic Extreme? This sometimes will stimulate a picky eater.

 

[tjara03]

i have not. i have not seen any of that at the LFS. can i just soak it in garlic juice, say from the supermarket??

 

[Fluff]

As long as it's just garlic I suppose it would be ok. You can also use fresh garlic and press your own. I know Hara makes her own, maybe you could pm her and see how she does it.

 

[tjara03]

i think that he might have ich... he breathing hard and seems to have no appetite.. does this sound like ich to you?? well i am picking up a 12gal nano tommorrow and was thinking of using it as a hospital tank for the two clowns... does this sound like a good idea? also i tried soaking some food in garlic juice and all my fish loved it but not that clown.

he is looking pretty skinny but not horribly skinny but enough to worry me... please more advice. i will set up the nano tommorrow as a hospital tank and possibly attempt hyposalinity, but the thing that worries me the most is that he is not eating!!!! thanks for the help so far Fluff..

 

[JG]

Do you know if he is tank raised or wild?

Wild ones are sometimes caught by using poison ( cyanide) to slow them down. Some of these fish exhibit the symptoms that you are describing and rarely recover while other will be fine. There will really be no other outward signs of illness or disease.

I have also had a couple of clowns with Brooklynella ( sp? ). They will also waste away, but they will really begin to look ill as their color changes.

Good luck.

JG

 

[tjara03]

well both clowns were tank raised... i put them both in a hospital tank last night and i woke this morning and the skinny one had passed over night..

the other seems to be doing fine, i think i will wait a while before getting him a counterpart, about how long is a good amount of time to wait??

what kind of clowns will pair with a TR Black Percula Clown?

will an orange one be ok?

are there any other options?

sorry for all the questions, but the black percs seem to be hard to find and are a bit on the expensive side..

Also do i get one that is a little smaller or a little bigger?

thanks for all the help guys!!